My highschool girlfriend and I practically lived at Borders in the early 2000s. There was something about coffee and books and music that seemed so sophisticated for us young teenagers. I feel bad teens now don’t have a safe enriching place like that to hang out anymore; even Barnes and Noble feels like a toy store now in its struggle to survive.
@@BreadFred3 it doesn’t have the same vibe at all. I totally agree with OP, going there and hanging out, reading books, getting coffee, etc, it was just fun.
Son of a former Borders finance guy at the headquarters, worked from 1997 to its closing in various departments. I shared this video with him and he loved it, and said it was extremely accurate. He wanted to add a couple possible reasons for the downfall as well -Borders was always playing for 2nd place. They had the 2nd best locations, the 2nd best coffee shops in the stores, the 2nd best e-readers, things like that. Barnes & Noble survived because they were in the lead on most of those fronts, and when there’s no room for two competing book store chains, the lowest on the totem pole has to fall -Walden books had 1300 locations, mostly tied to malls. As malls started to decline, they couldn’t pull out of those leases and find someone to fill it, and they were losing money. Even though B&N had a similar company with similar locations, they only had 700 so the impact was less -Borders took a risk expanding internationally. They opened locations in the UK and one in Singapore, both of which were costly investments that didn’t pay off -This one is a bit more speculative, but most book publishers are based in New York, and so is B&N. Few publishers would rather fly out to Ann Arbor than take a taxi in NY for a business meeting over dinner I laughed a lot when he told me he received his biggest ever bonus because Borders only lost $19 million that year
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED BORDERS, and still mourn their loss. I could spend hours in Borders, and Barnes & Noble just never managed to hit the exact right notes that Borders did without effort. They missed the boat on e-readers, then came out with a lesser model, and it was too little/too late. When I pass by a couple of those former Borders locations, my heart hurts. I wasn't just a Borders customer; I was a Borders fanatic. The only reason I quit going is when they locked the doors. I'd go back tomorrow if I had the chance.
Same here! The only chain store loss I truly mourn. Our store had various weekly events going. It did have the cafe but I was more there for books, music, and some of the weekly events.
I worked at Borders as a weekend job from September 1998 until June 2000. I remember the interview process was pretty detailed with questions about books and music and I apparently did okay because I was offered the job the next week. I worked in the music department (which also included the video section). I really liked the job for the most part and yes we prided ourselves on being able to help customers find exactly what they were looking for or being able to order it and have it at the store within 3 business days. I also learned so much about music and artists that it was crazy. I was already a music fan and thought I was pretty knowledgeable, but after working at Borders I broadened my musical horizons and found that I really liked a lot of different music that I either had never heard of or had a preconceived notion that I would not enjoy. My favorite moment of customer service happened when a high school girl came to the music counter and said that she needed some French music for a project for her French class where they would present a song and talk about the lyrics and translate them to English. She said that everyone was doing Celine Dion songs and she wondered if there was anything else in French that would be different. Fortunately for her, I had just discovered a new French duo called Les Nubians, which was a cool, slightly jazzy, R&B style music and they were French. Long story short, she got something completely cool and different from the rest of her classmates and I was able to totally wow her and her family with how quickly I was able to get it in their hands. I think that once that kind of customer service started to disappear, it was the beginning of the end for Borders!
I love everything about your comment! The part about getting that awesome sounding French duo to that girl was my fav part. How rewarding that must of been. 😊
I am the type of person who likes to find things myself, and it was nearly impossible at Borders. The customer service could be amazing, but to me it's worthless unless the shelves are kept organized and there's a system whereby someone can just find something. It looked nice, and it was a nice atmosphere and a place to hang out, but That whole marketplace model was a disaster. my experience was mainly at the 3rd Street promenade store in Santa Monica.
That was the it job. My cousin worked for them forever. He loved it. I was sixteen when I applied. I’m a huge book person. And I failed By two questions on the test. But you had to be educated to work there 😊
I used to shop at Borders in highschool specifically because they sold manga. No other bookstore around me at the time did this. Then around 2006, I discovered Kinokuniya, a Japanese chain that sold manga that cost 40-50% of the price Borders were charging. From that moment on, I never had a reason to enter a Borders again.
As a Borders employee at multiple locations from 2002-2006, and again from 2009-2011, I can say this is mostly spot-on. From what I could see the music and movie section actually did pretty well though. The big thing I saw was each new CEO wanting to put their own stamp on the company without a proper direction, focusing less and less on books and more on random stuff like body products, toys, and greeting cards/wrapping paper. In the beginning it was a great place to work, but by the end it was miserable. I quit exactly one month before its demise, with both middle fingers in the air.
I have been noticing that lately with a lot of these specialty stores that are still around: they sell more and more of this random crap. As an example, walk into an FYE that's still around and you'll see a lot of knick-knacks, T-shirts, Funko Pops, and other assorted retail trash, with barely any floor space for music, movies, or the other stuff they used to sell.
@@carriertoneI still can't believe people pay so much money for those on eBay. I see those damn things littering thrift stores all the time. Total plastic trash.
I worked at Borders from 1996-2003, eventually becoming a manager and trainer. All your reasons are spot on. We had a hiring freeze and my store ran on a skeleton crew. 30k square foot store with only 4 employees there at a time. Customer service and morale went down the tube.
Yes, the same thing happened at my store in New Orleans. It's looks like they all were following the same type of decline more or less at the same time.
My Mother loved her Borders and the staff. They were always so friendly to her. When they were closing, she went there the last day to be the last customer and say good bye. I know she still misses them.
I CRIED when Borders died 😭 Borders was my happy place, my safe place, my refuge when life went wrong. Borders was my PUB. There were SO many days I wandered the stacks, trying not to cry as I drank my chai latte and tried to pull myself together. I MISS Borders!!!!!! 🥺😔
I never drank their coffee, but I used to buy art books, Metal magazines and anime on VHS and DVD at Borders. Just walking into the store was like going into another dimension of Great Learning. 😭
My family worked for Borders back in the day for decades, and you are absolutely correct about the cutting corners with part-time employees. But on top of that, they also let numerous higher salaried people (who had been with them from the beginning) go in lieu of new hires with whom they didn’t have to pay so much. My mother worked there for over 25 years and she was let go and replaced with someone who was brand new. They didn’t even pay that new person 1/3 of what my mother made. Corners CUT.
One of the largest and most respected engineering companies informed their people with decades of experience that they were going to be let go after they trained their own replacements. That included teaching some English. Engineers with a record of success have no trouble finding employment. Some gave two weeks notice. Some quit on the spot. I hired as many as I could. They brought their clients with them. I attribute my success to their corporate greed.
I can't believe it has already been 12 years since Borders shut down. I'm just like you - every time I drive by my old Borders, I say "that used to be Borders." I remember when I was a kid, I always thought that was my dad's favorite store. It seemed like whenever he had free time, he would go buy a new book. I also remember when I was really little, they would have story time for kids. This is going to sound weird, but I almost felt a loyalty to Borders - so much so that when they closed, I was hesitant to go to a Barnes and Noble when I needed a book. I can still remember the smell of coffee wofting through the air, the rolling ladders attached the massive shelves; our Borders was 2 stories with the cafe on the top floor, and sometimes if we were lucky (though it was very rare) my dad would buy us a hot chocolate from there. I do kind of miss it, though I don't really read a lot anymore.
@@mattdouplesx ditto. I bet there are many similar stories. My wife and I spent many hours there studying, sipping coffee while in college in Ann Arbor. We felt like we lost a piece of our personal history. Never felt that way about any other doomed business.
Mine was replaced with some fitness centre up top and a beauty store at the bottom. I kinda crave those big box book stores because Kinokuniya was the closest for me because of the dedicated Anime-Manga section (I was planning to get Suisei’s Stellar to the Galaxy but I couldn’t.) I’ll also mention Barnes and Noble too, but it’s far :(
As a compulsive reader, I used to invade Waldenbooks every month; everybody working there became friends to me. They knew the books I wanted, so they would pull out a stack and I would leave with a FULL bag. Their discount cards helped a lot with that :)
We were poor so I wouldn't get to go to the mall in the area often (it was like 40 minutes away) but when I did get to go, I would make a B Line for Waldenbooks and just be so happy to get to read some Manga.
@@sawyerstudio The Waldenbooks that opened nearest to me made the news for being the first book store on the south side of San Antonio. I loved that place, and it was a shame when it was closed, leaving that void again. I know everything is digital now, but there was just something about it.
Borders was my little piece of heaven on earth. I was going through a very stressful time and Borders helped. One day I went there, found a new paperback by an author I liked,got a fancy coffee and a cookie and just relaxed. I could feel the stress just drain out of me. I really needed that. Plus great music selection.🥰☕️🍪❤️
Borders was the best book store out there, Barnes and Nobles just isn't the same thing. It wasn't the selection of books...it was the atmosphere. I'll never forget the memories I formed with my dad going to Borders. You would walk in and feel like you were in a cozy home, with Jazz music playing in the background and a 'cozy' atmosphere. I remember going to the expresso bar with my dad and there would be lots of people sitting at the tables reading books. I also remember there being many places to sit around the bookstore, and people would spend literal hours inside the store reading and even discussing books or music with other people; reading on some forums, apparently, lots of people made life long friends at Borders store because of this. Borders wasn't just a store...it was more of a Libary-Store hybrid. You never felt like you were in a store, you felt like you were in a library or a cozy home. To this day, I miss this store so much, maybe because I spent many years as a child there with my dad, but Barnes and Nobles just doesn't have that same feeling. Nothing against Barnes, it's a great store as well, however, that's the problem for me, you feel like you're in a store... :( wish somehow Borders could be brought back from the grave but that will never happen, even more so with the digital age. Even Barnes and Nobles is struggling because of Amazon, as people become lazier and dont want to go to a book store anymore, and instead order it online. I really hope there will still be book stores in the future, but it doesn't look good. Unironically, we will probably have small local bookstores survive in the future, reverting from big box to small lol.
I don't think it's laziness. Many of us no longer have any bookstores to go to. I live in a rural area. The last bookstore that was within 40 miles of me closed a couple years ago. There aren't even any used bookstores in my area. Online and the library are my only choices
After viewing this video, I was trying to find the words to describe what made me love Borders so much. What made it better than B&N or Crown or Waldenbooks? Your word “cozy” is the answer! For a bibliophile like myself, bookstores had the same allure that shoe stores have for many women. But I never felt comfortable browsing for too long because there was unspoken pressure to buy; and browsing without buying made me feel guilty, as though I was stealing. But here was a store that actually invited you to browse, or better yet, allowed you to read without harassment. They knew that, even if no books were purchased that day, the customer might buy magazines or coffee or just return two more times that week and buy several books. I was shocked and saddened to see it close its doors!
@@netplayer23 I feel the same as you. Borders was a pleasant, cozy place to browse for books. There were always chairs to sit in while I looked at books I usually decided to buy. It was the Borders atmosphere that was so special. I miss it terribly. Barnes and Noble is just a big, impersonal store with no places to sit and read a book. Standing at their bookcases is just not the same. I hardly ever go to Barnes and Noble anymore, it's just not a pleasant experience. Buying books on Amazon is convenient, but I really miss Borders!
Yup, mine was about a 5 minute drive from my home. And there were a lot of stores and great places to eat in the shopping center where it was located, so it was always a store on my to go list when ever I'd go out there.
My dad actually used to work as an internal auditor at Borders when I was in like 4th grade. We moved to an apartment in Ann Arbor for a bit thinking we would full on move there as he worked with them, but he ended up leaving and we moved again before I started 5th grade. I never thought much about it as a kid since I didn't even know what internal audit was, but I'm 21 now and I think it would be interesting to ask him for the inside scoop on what was going down.
@stefanjasper If you get the chance please speak to your Dad and ask him some details about what led up to him leaving the Borders job and post a follow up here. Thanks.
I worked at Borders as manager in the early 90s. Each store would have 3 times as many titles as the average Barnes & Noble but there were so many items we couldn't sell. We had an entire section of Shakespeare plays in French and German and Italian. It was almost every play and took 2 full shelves. We could tell from the inventory stickers that these books were sitting for 3 years. The amount of books we had in storage was criminal. We could move bestsellers at 30% off but full priced weird specialty books just sad. The carrying costs for Borders must have been massive
Yeah, that's definitely the downside to such a massive inventory. Honestly had Borders gotten their website in good shape they could have kept the most popular titles in stores with just a bit of flexibility for the niche books people liked seeing, then offloaded the rest to storage warehouses to be shipped out from online.
Wow we didn't keep things that long if they didn't sell at Barnes and Noble. Unsold books are returnable to publishers, which is a weird quirk of the book industry. It sounds like they didn't utilize that well in order to have "wider selection." But Amazon had a wider selection the day they opened than any physical bookstore could have had ever and they can keep their books in a warehouse somewhere (probably not even paid for by Amazon itself).
I worked at Borders for about 4 years while in college and I loved it. I remember having to sign people up for the Borders Rewards Card and also when the cafes switched to Seattle’s Best. Harry Potter Midnight Releases were my store’s busiest times. I left in 2007 and every time I pass by the old building which is now a TJ Maxx, I always say that used to be the Borders I worked at!
"They sold their entire business to K-Mart..." I think I know what went wrong. 😂 Seriously though, for them to have been big in the Midwest, I don't think I had ever even seen a Borders. We had plenty of Barnes and Noble & Books-A-Million, though. Great video! I LOVED going to the bookstore! 📖
Said the same thing in my comment. Once you know the geniuses behind K-Mart's torpedo in the ground touched something, you can bet it didn't end well. I'd be shocked if some K-Mart execs didn't get cushy positions with Borders and were behind a lot of the incompetence.
I worked at a Borders in the early 00's expansion was an issue for a year at every meeting before shift they'd announce one or two new stores openings. Then a year later when profits were down they just cut cost accross the board vs focusing on the stores that worked. Which brought all the stores down. Also they were horrible at advertising themselves.
When i was in Army combat medic training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in 2002, I spent almost every evening and day off at Borders just hanging out. It had such a chill atmosphere and it felt so nice after being yelled at and training hard day in and day out. I didnt have a car at the time so it was like the only decent store within walking distance. I bought tons of CDs and a good amount of books from them and also did most of my studying there as well. Good times.
I was shocked when Borders started going out of business. In my middle school/high school years, Borders was the place to go for a vast selection of fantasy and sci-fi stuff (as opposed to stocking dozens of copies of a single popular title).
The closest Borders to me got turned into a Books A Million right after going out of business. The BAM who moved in didn't even change the interior at all, they just changed the sign outside. 😂 They did do a little bit of remodeling a few years later, but it was mostly superfical stuff, like changing the carpet and rearranging the bookshelves. But the store is still basically identical to how it was back in the early 2000's. It was my dream as a kid to work at Borders while in college. RIP.
Mine did the exact same thing. They also changed the coffee shop from Seattle's Best to Joe Muggs. From what I recall back when it happened, BAM did this to a very small percentage of Borders stores when they closed (think it was only maybe around a dozen or two). They most likely picked these locations based on the location of the nearest main bookstore, and as my nearest Barnes and Noble is almost half an hour away they had and continue to have almost no competition, being the go-to bookstore in my town.
Been waiting for this one! I worked there in 2007-2010 and the decline was obvious from the inside. I was part-time and making min wage with my only raise being when the min wage increased in my state. The management started pushing "customer service" aka badgering the customers who just wanted to browse in order to get them to buy more. I think we lost a lot of regulars that way. They became way more interested in upselling toys and little nick nacks rather than books. It was a nice place to work when I was in college but definitely wouldn't have stayed any longer.
We never, and still don't, have Barnes and Nobels so it really hurt when our Borders shut down. Amazon is fine if you know what you want but I found so much cool stuff at Borders just by browsing. Plus they had a fun open mic night with lots of cool local artists. Great store. I miss it
@ingobernoble2678, I have a Barnes and Nobles and have been there only once as a little kid in 97or 98. I remember tons of books and a cafe. I had a gift card from winning a guess how many candy in a jar and won the gift card in 1st grade. I haven't been back since.
@@shainahullihen1159 Barnes and Nobles is okay, especially if you're looking for newer books or something in a "new" condition that can be lacking at a used bookstore. However, it's a little pricey and every store seems to be set up differently which can make it a little challenging finding where you're looking for if you aren't use to that store.
I knew several of the salesmen who were allowed to run their own departments. One guy was allowed to select great science fiction and horror. The other was well trained music expert. It was great to stop and shop by and listen to music. Also Calendars selling calendars
As a kid who would go to Borders every day after school to read and buy manga, I was so sad. I remember the employees told me the late engagement in ebooks was the demise.
This one hurt. I loved Borders and when it went out of business, I was really sad. They were my gateway into manga because they were one of the few places that actually had a dedicated section for anime and manga merch.
Worked as an associate>manager at Borders for nigh 11 years. It’s nice to see people remember it fondly. Moving on to other companies, it became clear how profit-challenging the book business was and how many regrettable decisions they made. Still, it was a lot of fun and the closest staff I ever had.
I worked at a location. We made nothing on newly published books. If you look deeper into that topic you will find that both Borders and B&N got into trouble for under cutting each other to the point where the publishers forced them to sell at a higher price. There were also no profits to be had on older books since the shelf time ate away at the profits. Our only profit came from the stacks of discount coffee table books which were always stacked up near the register for shoppers to impulse buy while waiting to check out. So, if you build a brick and mortar operation where 95% of your floor space is not bringing in profits, then your doomed to fail.
I was a Borders customer until their last store near me closed in early 2012. It took them that long to sell out of everything. i walked out with a lot of manga, because they were genuinely good at keeping up with things in that regard, and they had a very large selection--bigger than any other chain bookstore.
@@ckfinke7625 , Barnes & Noble is still much larger. BAM! isn't even in my state or dozens of other states. My metro area has 11 Barnes & Nobles but no BAM!s to be found.
I was loyal customer at Borders all the way up till the end, my late father and I would go every Sunday after breakfast they would send us coupons via e-mail and we would always dig around the clearance section and our favorite genres and often leave with a least one book. I think the primary reason they went under was they got too focused on music and movies, nobody went there for that and even if you did every DVD or CD was highly overpriced when compared to Walmart or Best Buy. I never really understood it if you went to Borders you went because you loved books, and yet they devoted a quarter of the store to stuff that people were not there for.
I was a Borders employee for 4-5 years and was there until the very end. While I primarily worked in the cafe, often times helped the book floor when it was needed. I believe in late 2010 and 2011, while most store were closing, many talks of my store and a few others will not be affected with closing. Everything was fine and dandy until the day I came into the work and there were signs all over the windows saying we were closing. During a lot of the company meetings near the liquidation dates of my store, it was mandatory to push those e-readers but as everyone knew, it was too late. Those training on those kobo readers were pretty bad and no one really knew how to use them. Barnes and Noble already had a huge market for them at their stores. I felt like this was one of the biggest reasons of their downfall as noted in the video. What was also bad was, at the start of the liquidation, the day I found out we were going to close was that the cafe was shut down immediately. We had to pour several gallons of milk down the drain, all good food items had to be tossed. Nothing was donated or served while they lasted. Such a shame. I had a great time working there and I had many great memories. Even kept contact with a lot of old coworkers. Just like in the video, every time I drive through my old store and the others in the area, I would often say, that was once a Borders, a great place full of memories.
Somebody who never fully transition to online shopping and still despises the online shopping experience to this day I sincerely miss borders bookstore. I can’t think of a single bad shopping experience I ever had. It’s true their staff was pretty kick ass and knowledgeable in the subjects that they sold
I got better things to do than spend a couple of hours shopping in retail outlets across the city. I get that $#!t done in 20 minutes on my phone. And I'm 53. I love online shopping if I don't need the item Right Now.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 Online shopping is great if you're looking for a particular item or a specific thing, especially if your time is a bit more limited, but it's not as useful for "window shopping", getting ideas for someone, or if you're just looking to get out of the house for awhile. Online shopping is certainly generally more convenient but I do think there are very valid reasons why it's not always better than in-store shopping.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 it’s the shipping costs that gets you. Most retail stores have some sort of system online where you can check if a store has something in stock, so you aren’t stuck driving around all over the city. Some will even let you check out and pick up the item at your convenience, meaning many times, they’ll even bring it out to your car. That’s service!
I'm 68, and love Amazon. Their book recommendations rival (and possibly exceed) anything a person could suggest in person. Not only do I save time shopping online (allowing me to do things more important than shopping for a book), the shipping is free and is often overnight. "Bring it to your car" is nice, but doesn't even begin to compete with "bring it to your door."
I miss Borders so much. It was the only major book store my town had growing up, when they closed we only had the used bookstors left which was fine exept when you were looking for a new book and had to go to Wal-Mart or Amazon. It was really depressing not having a dedicated new book store anymore.
My sister went into the CD department of a local Borders and asked for "Big Band" music. The young customer service rep walked her over to where the symphonies were. "They're big bands, aren't they?"
Weird. Your sister could have just gone to the CD section and all the genres of music were well-marked - I love a lot of diverse genres of music and was always able to find the section(s) I wanted without asking.
I worked there for 15 years. The failure to establish a website early on, apart from that wonky deal that gave all our online business to Amazon, was a major factor. 2008 may have been peak revenue, but the company was already well in decline by that point. The other major factor I would point to is turnover in corporate direction. They kept changing leadership and trying different things, and then immediately getting cold feet and backing out. It was like death by 1000 cuts. In 2011 I ended up a Borders refugee, but finally landed at another, smaller bookstore with a better store culture, which isn't to say that the store culture in Borders was bad, but it was a Big retailer, and that meant a lot of agreements between the company and publishers or distributors that had to be adhered to (for instance, how items were displayed). Shoplifting was an issue as well. We had a fairly aggressive approach to it, but ultimately you can only do so much, and if you don't know exactly what your limits are, you can end up in trouble. We had a pretty good inventory system, but not as advanced as a company like Walmart, and it definitely could have been improved, which, if done right, would have streamlined the customer experience with things like locating and ordering books. It was a good company, but it failed to adapt to the existence of the internet. Amazon basically used it as a springboard to success, while Borders went into decline.
Back in it's heyday, our Borders in Champaign, IL had employees who were linked to the live-local music scene, so the Borders cafe was a legit live local music venue (mostly acoustic acts, of course). They had a local music section in the store. It wasn't just this big box retail behemoth, it was really linked into our community. I still have my Borders card, for nostalgic purposes! Great memories.
My local mall had a Waldenbooks and it was the only bookstore within over an hour of me. I bought every single one of the Twilight books there as a cringey preteen and it is one of the few positive memories I still have of those years, that hasn’t faded into the ether. I distinctly remember the feel of that store. When it closed, it took my town a good 5 years for an indie bookstore to crop up and it was rough, having to go in towards the nearest big city for over an hour to go to a bookstore.
One thing a borders employee told me was that the company would allow their employees to take books home, and encouraged reading. He led me to some increadibly unique biology books, and had a vast pool of bioligy related sci-fi knowledge to call from. I shopped there until their final day because all of their employees were like that, and I miss it.
I worked for Borders part-time in around 2008-2009. I was in college at the time and it was my first real job. As personal sellers we were instructed to sell every customer on one of 4 or 5 "books of the month". I think the idea was that they would purchase more of certain new titles in bulk to save on costs and then rely on the employees to push those books. So of course the attractive women who worked there always had 5-10 more books sold per month than anyone else, and this was what they judged our performance on. I said then that the business model was unsustainable and I was proven right. If they had taken the online space more seriously and not been trapped in long-term leases they might have been able to downsize and survive.
I also worked for Borders at a Waldenbooks store. They also had a really bad habit of ignoring popular genres like Manga and African American Fiction. we used to have to fight to get those titles in when our customers were clamoring for them. They instead were intent on pushing "Tentpole Titles" like Harry Potter and such. Noone at our location bought that stuff but they insisted on all stores carrying the exact same stuff. We only kept our store open as long as we did because our manager ignored corporate and they couldn't fire him for it since our store was one of the only profitable ones.
I worked at Chapters, the Canadian Borders, and towards the end of my time there they wanted us to walk around with a book and try to sell it to every customer. So dumb.
I had had a lot of experience working at independent bookstores when I interviewed at Waldenbooks. The manager told me that if a customer walked into the store and we didn't have what they wanted, my job would be to sell them something we had in stock. I didn't get the job. In retrospect, I'm glad.
No one ever tried to sell me on books I would not want. Then again, however, I was my own best saleswoman. And I also did go both for the very obscure books that fascinated me, as well as the 2 for 1 books near the checkout, should the topic or author interest me. Even at the end. And I didn't see them pushing other customers. Might have been location-dependent. I MISS that place.
I gasped with joy when seeing you uploaded this!!! Growing up I LOVED Borders. We had a local one that was two stories, a nice coffee shop, and Borders always had the BEST stationary section! I remember even getting my backpack once there as a young teen, with matching school supplies of course. And when he could afford it my dad would always buy us a Lindt truffle each to enjoy on the way home. To this day, every time I have to go to a Barnes & Noble I give a sad sigh, thinking about how much cooler it would be to go to Borders. B&N stationary is so much more generic and boring and overpriced.😭💔 RIP Borders. You made my childhood. I was so sad when they closed and I was definitely surprised.
Borders was such a better bookstore than B&N. The atmosphere was amazing and their selection was such a cut above anything B&N wishes they had. I could always find what I was looking for at Borders, and even stuff I never knew I wanted. B&N just isn't the same at all. I was super upset when my local Borders closed, and the Waldenbooks at the mall too.
I know of a former Borders location. When they closed down they left some huge letters spelling BORDERS on the back wall. The location was turned into a furniture store, and the new owners took down half the letters and rearranged the others to spell BEDS in the Border's logo font. It was still there the last time I went by that area, an echo of the store's former life.
In the 90's in Alaska, Borders was one of the best CD stores in town. Their selection was HUGE, and not what you'd automatically expect from a bookstore. I stocked up on punk, metal, new wave, visual kei, TONS of different stuff. 8:04 - Also, that b-roll of people using e-readers is infuriating. It's like watching my parents try to use an iPad.
@@FlameG102 The worst part was it didn't even look like they realized they were struggling. It was like they were just aimlessly swiping a blank screen and they added the effect of the display later.
I have SO many fond memories of going to Borders back in mid-90's to early 2000's. My mom was a total book worm so we were always going to some bookstore. I do remember the employees at Borders (usually young guys) being very personable and genuinely passionate about what they carried. When Borders closed down, I later shopped at B&N but their employees were usually just awkward, quiet middle aged women that acted like you were bothering them and had no idea what you were talking about. The music section in Borders was fantastic. I was always in that area. I loved their computer system where you could search for music yourself and see if they carried it or find other albums from artists you liked. If they didn't have it, I think they could order it for you, which was such a big deal at the time.
I worked at Waldenbooks/Borders Express from 1998-2008. You hit all the important points as far as I can see. No online presence, and shifting from decently paid full time staff to minimum wage part timers. The salaried managers were expected to work 50-60 hours per week (all unpaid overtime) to make up the difference. I got a lot of pressure put on me to take a salaried position, at a whopping 4% raise! Thanks anyway. There was tremendous pressure to upsell every customer and it became clear that the company would rather have employees who could push Lindor balls over ones who could help with book recommendations.
i used to work at Borders, too. my experience was very similar. i remember fearing for my job if i didn't try and upsell a Lindor ball at the register or fail to say the right phrases on the phone while working at the Info desk. nobody at my store ever wanted to help out at the cafe (especially our GM), and we were all expected to work odd hours for next to nothing. the company treated employees poorly. can't say i'm sad to see them gone.
At the time I started, it was a good job as far as retail goes. Because I was full time and grandfathered in, I had good medical and dental coverage, I got up to 4 weeks of vacation by the time I left, stock options, 401(k) with a 50% match, and starting pay even for part-timers was 50% above minimum wage. Amazon was the first nail in the coffin. Obviously, B&N survived, and the video does a good job of explaining why. But it was Amazon that applied the pressure and when profits fell, management panicked. They were locked into leases and books cost what books cost. Heavy discounts on bestsellers could drive traffic, but that won’t pay the rent, or salaries and benefits. You can really only save money by cutting payroll and benefits, so you lose quality employees. You increase profits by pushing high-margin items, like Burt’s Bees and Lindor balls. Of course it didn’t work, but they were trying to stay afloat. They made some bad decisions, but I understand why it happened. It’s a shame, is all.
I loved Borders. Their clearance section was THE BEST! I always found something I'd never thought to look for. I still have a few Borders bags, and a few of the books I'd gotten there still have the receipts to use as bookmarks. (My to be read pile is HUGE.) When they closed, we purchased some of the bookcases, so my library looks a little like an old Borders store.
This was my favorite store growing up. The day my mom told me it was going out of business is a core memory. I was distraught. I loved the books, but an equally big draw for me were the space carpets in the children’s section. I had a solar system kit from there that hung on my ceiling all through my childhood. Barnes & Noble took over our location and kept the carpet, but it was never the same… 😞
I worked for Borders from 2008 to 2011 just before they went away. Way too many part timers would be hired or brought back during seasonal or they needed a job for winter/summer break. There were way too many managers, I alone had to answer to 5 people and I was just an inventory specialist/cashier. Also, the environment changed with way too many regular customers coming in daily to read magazines or newspapers without paying. If we didn't have a book or piece of media someone was looking for, we had to use or own website to buy it online. If the customer didn't have a debit/credit card, we had to get them to buy a gift card for the amount the book cost.
Spot on. I used to work for Borders in 2008 and the amount of unpurchased books and magazines at the end of the night were ridiculous. People would sit in the cafe for hours reading like it was a library and ruined the books with coffee rings on the covers. They would put in orders for books and never pay to pick them up. I used to wonder how they were even making a profit but I guess by 2008 they really weren't.
Sigh. If I sat and read a part of a book I didn't buy - I didn't buy that one because I didn't enjoy it. But I don't think I EVER left there without a purchase or possibly three. And I never ruined a book - even today all the physical books I own look like they just came home from a physical bookstore - I don't break bindings or covers or put what I'm eating inside the pages. Sorry that so many others were inconsiderate.
I really miss Borders. It was my favorite place to go as a kid and teen and the hang out spot for me. I loved going in on a Friday night and reading some fiction, some non fiction, some strategy guides, visiting the coffee shop, and buying a book sometimes. Their closing still hurts the most out of my store.
This is good video. I worked at Borders from 2003-2008 as an inventory supervisor. One thing not mentioned in the video that likely contributed to the decline was the introduction of the Borders Rewards program in early 2006. This program sent out almost weekly coupons by email and also gave 5% rewards credit for purchases. Members could also earn "personal shopping days" that would given them 10% off an entire purchase, and this discount stacked with coupons and rewards credit. Previous to the rewards program, Borders had limited discounts to just best sellers and a small selection of other products. The typical Borders customer was happy to pay full price on everything else given the much better selection and customer service. The Borders Rewards coupons were usually good for 20-50% off one item. This shifted the mentality of the Borders customer at the store I worked at. It wasn't long before a lot of regular customers would only buy stuff when they had a coupon. One of the graphs in this video showed Borders in the red beginning in 2007, which was the year after they launched the rewards program. Also an error. Borders' first eReader was the Sony Reader. They offered that for several years before switching to Kobo.
I remember that Rewards program. As a high school kid with little money who was collecting manga volumes at the time it was awesome to be able to save a few dollars every week for a new volume.
I was a cafe manager for Borders in 1997-1999. When Amazon debuted, we immediately knew Borders would not survive, particularly with their half-baked attempt at being online. Oh, and most of the staff was part-time, although their book knowledge was indeed fantastic.
I was a Borders devotee back in the day. We went for the last Harry Potter book's release party and it was really fun. I definitely like libraries or book stores better for shopping for books, because you can just look around and read the synopsis of books you might want to buy, plus they just have such a wide variety. I really do miss Borders, but now I go to either Barnes and Noble or Books a Million if there isn't an independent bookstore nearby. The Borders location I went to was across a "stroad" from the Barnes and Noble.
My first exposure to book stores was visiting Borders, especially my favorite location of theirs in Lower Manhattan. The last time I went to that Borders was on September 7, 2001 and then a few days later it was completely destroyed.
I have two lasting memories with customer service at Borders: I asked a young woman where I would find “Alice in Wonderland”. She had an American accent so I’m assuming she was either American or grew up in America but she had apparently never heard of the book and thought I was asking her about “Alison Wonderland.” Another time I had to special order a book titled “World of Faery” and when I came back to see if it had arrived I saw it waiting on the shelf behind the register. I let the employee know why I was there and tried to tell her the name of the book but she turned around before I could finish, looked at the shelf, then told me they didn’t have “World Affairs”.
I've never worked at Borders, but I've worked at several small, independent bookstores. One time a customer walked in and asked if we had the mankind book, as if I should know what that was. My initial thought was that she was looking for some sort of anthropology book. I started asking questions in order to figure out exactly what she wanted. Anthropology? Nope. It turns out "Mankind" was a professional wrestler, and he had published a book just a few days before. She looked at me dumbfounded for my never having heard of Mankind. I wanted to say to her, "I work in a bookstore. Do you really think I watch wrestling?" Another time, a woman called on the phone, asking if we had the biography of Princess Diana--"You know--the one written before she died." "When did she die?" I asked. The response--a dumbfounded "You don't know?" Well no, I'm not a fan of the Royals, so I couldn't remember when it was. I checked the computer for available titles. There were about 300. I told the customer I'd have to know a little more to be able to narrow it down to the one she wanted. She just got disgusted and hung up on me. Yet another time, a man came in looking for the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I quickly retrieved a copy off the shelf for him. He kept asking me, "Is this the one actually written by Ben Franklin?" I told him yes, it has to be--it says "autobiography" right on the cover. He kept grilling me as if he thought I had the wrong book. I pondered whether I should explain the difference between a biography and an autobiography to him, but I finally realized it wasn't worth the effort.
My son and I lived in Borders on Saturday afternoons. They had everything! So sad what happened. I was hoping they would get rescued and make a comeback but no. My son was 13 when Borders closed. When he saw the location we went to was closing he got pretty upset.
There's a Books A Million in my hometown where Borders used to be, and it just isn't the same. The selection isn't as good and the prices are all marked up. The only real upside to Borders closing was that it got me to start looking for independent booksellers, and I found some real gems in my area. I still miss Borders though.
Same here with a books a million in the old borders location. But I feel the prices are about the same on books. The price that is written on the bake by the upc.
@@answerman9933 it seems like BAM has more pop culture / nerdy toy stuff than borders did, but that’s probably just a sign of the times. And they don’t have Seattles best like Borders did- they had their own branded cafe. The one near me just removed their cafe though.
I worked at Borders from 2005 to their closing date in 2011 and you completely nailed it. Terrible online management, kobo e-reader that was subpar, investing in cds/DVDs that no one bought, but when they made all non-management part-time, it was the beginning of the end.
Borders was my first post high school job where I worked during my first year at college, from May 2000 to May 2001. It was the one in Murray, Utah, across from the Fashion Place Mall. I adored the customers, and my coworkers, many of which were school teachers. I always closed and there were so many nights me and my coworkers would hangout in the parking lot and just bs for an hour or more. It was such a magical time. I miss Borders.
True story: I worked at a Borders Cafe in my late teens. It was a total free-for-all. Cafe managers could basically sell whatever they thought would make them money. My most vivid memory is the “fajitas” we sold from the bake case. Our “fajitas” were deli meat, American cheese slices, lettuce and mayo wrapped in a big flour tortilla. They would sit in that case, pre-made for days at a time. Yum. And yes, they were labeled as fajitas. For real. 😢
I always preferred Borders and Waldenbooks as a kid. In college when I had very little money I would go in once every couple weeks with a 30-40% off coupon and get a single book to read at the nearby mall. In high school when I had a part time job and no bills a couple times a year I would go out to the big Borders and do those buy 3 or 4 get 1 free deals on manga and spend 150$ and go home with 2 massive bags of manga and a couple books with it. I probably still have my borders card. Miss it so much.
I was heartbroken when Borders went out of business and two thirds of our local bookstores simply disappeared. I love B&N, but I'll always miss Borders.😭
My first "real" job was being a bookseller at Borders in 2005 and 2006, and I can attest that I never took a literature test, and I was only 19 years old and working on my bachelor's degree. I also was technically part time because they didn't want to pay for benefits for me lol but I still worked almost 40 hours a week. Still, I have a lot of fond memories from that job, and when the store I worked at was closed and turned into an Old Navy, it made me a little sad. Thanks for this video! Super interesting, and a fun trip down memory lane
The magazine rack at Borders is what brought me in I used to go out of my way to spend hours looking at all the latest magazines. My gosh how media has changed.
I remember shopping here and you are right I could always find something obscure here. I didn't realize that that was a part of their market plan. I do also remember shopping their liquidation sale and remember that Boarders had become something like what Barns and Noble is now. A place primarily for books but had a bunch of other stuff non book related. For example I bought my son a soft baby blanket there and my daughter a board game.
Definitely the best selection, especially for technical books. I never felt "dumbed-down to" or patronized in a Borders. Excellent magazine selection as well.
Brilliant work. You are an elite UA-camr! One of my favorites. I discovered borders when it was in its later days. The store I went to was visibly in trouble. I’m noticed a drop in inventory and knew their days were numbered.
I really miss Borders and bought a huge stack of cds and some books at their Ann Arbor store in 2011. I remember they really did stock odd items, like Dover editions to music scores which I bought and studied as a young pianist/bassoonist and the CD selection for classical was always better than B&N, they stocked the best new classical selections and had a huge selection of NAXOS labeled cds, many of which I still have today. And yes, there are 3 stores I pass and say "yes, that used to be a Borders".
I never visited a Borders store, there weren't any in my area, but my local mall always had a Waldenbooks, and it was my favorite place to visit as a kid/teen. Quiet and cozy, and I could just relax and read as I wished. I was heartbroken when they closed down, and the worst part was that it was immediately replaced by an Apple store, which could not be more different
We were Borders people. When my mother was working on her degree, her and I would go to borders, sit in the cafe and do homework together. Most of my paperbacks I still have today were bought at Borders. Barnes and Noble never had the same vibe that we liked. It always felt stuffy and pretentious.
I wish you had talked about their expansion internationally. We had Borders here in Australia for a few years - big, prominent stores in prime locations. But then they all closed. I used to shop there.
That part about Borders having “that book” is so true, I found a line of a new author’s book on a shelf that were all signed with a thank you and never found it again after it the locations near me died. I vaguely remember it had a pink cover with a donkey guy hugging someone. It was about that guy turning into a donkey man. At least that’s what I recall from the first few chapters I read. Big shame that it went under, I miss it dearly.
Absolutely loved Borders and still miss them dearly! Wouldn't be involved in anime retail right now without them, in fact. My local store had a healthy supply of small accessories on clearance that I thought would make for great prizes/giveaways for a convention I was guesting at, and I ended up buying out their entire stock. The promotion went over so well that it led me down the path of becoming an official accessories dealer. Still happy to be at it 13 years+ later!
Mom and I used to go to Border's AND Barnes & Noble EVERY weekend! We both used to find books that we liked and I found old tv shows from the 70's on DVD for the first time! I saw them on TV Land first and got hooked! Then whatever we couldn't find at Border's, we just went to Barnes & Noble with was literally just a block away! It was a fun bonding experience with my mom and I miss it! This was I think 2007-2010 somewhere in there.
Very nostalgic for going to Borders on family vacations in the states. Something about getting my manga and sitting down in those quiet stores as a kid when I was sunburnt from too much time on a beach was so relaxing.
The reason why I knew about Boarders closing was when Spongepuppets (A Plush SpongeBob series) did a video where Squidward was sad that Boarders was closing as it was one of the places he could escape from SpongeBob and Patrick, with him going to the closing Boarders to have one last look. It’s an interesting time capsule I highly recommend.
I used to work at borders from 2007 to 2010. I got to see everything youre talking about first hand. The media section fully shutdown in 2009. And the location worked at was across the street from a mall that had a walden books in it... i always thought that was strange. Also the customer service did suffer later on. Your spot on! Great vid
In the mid 1990's through to early 2000/2001, there was a Borders book shop near the Dadeland Metro Station in Miami. I loved this one book shop. It had book selections that you would never find anywhere else, or in any other book shop in the city. I spent an inordinate amount of time in this shop. I still have my set of books that are collectibles now, in my library. To this day, none of the books I had purchased there, are available anywhere online. This was a very popular book shop, until they shut down.
I absolutely loved Borders. It was such a great place to visit. I almost ALWAYS walked out having purchased something, mostly books. I was genuinely sad when they disappeared.
The Joe Muggs brand ☕️ at BAM was 🤮. I liked the Starbucks B&N cafes but they seemed over priced 🤑. When Targets started to add Starbucks cafes that was a sweeping change.
The amazing thing was how quickly Borders zoomed past other bookstore giants such as B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. Alas, it zoomed downward just as quickly.
I recall reading an interview with Larry Correia, who is an accomplished writer himself. He stated that he had such a horrible time dealing with borders, that he would rather hang out at mom and Pop shops to sign his book then go to Barnes and Noble, as opposed to having a book signing at borders. Larry stated that at one Borders location, a manager did not want him to sign any books, because “if you signed them, we can’t return them to the manufacture as new“
Cripes, this unlocked hidden memories of my small home town's Waldenbooks becoming Borders before eventually shutting down. Now we'd have a few second-hand bookstores, but we'd need to drive an hour one-way for modern books if not for the internet. I miss being able to just go to a bookstore for new releases...
I'm from Puerto Rico and I remember the Borders they had at Plaza Las Americas (a popular mall located in San Juan). I would go almost every Sunday there with my dad. He would go to find his books and I would always be looking for either comics or manga. The place was huge, and had a wide variety of titles. I remember they also had live music on occasions. Due to being at the mall, the place was always packed. Since we used to go on Sunday mornings, the store was quietter, and we sort of befriended an older gentlemen, from the States , that would go to get his copy of the New York Times. The staff there was friendly as well and one woman in particular always recognized us as were regulars of sorts. Watching this video makes me think of the staff and the people I stumbled upon at the store and wonder what became of them after its closing. The store to me always had a unique vibe, which will never be matched by any other book chain.
I loved Borders, and was shocked to see them go (along with Waldenbooks, which I frequented a LOT back in the day). One offering they had before B&N did: Euro boardgames. They had an incredible selection at a time when such was uncommon outside a dedicated FLGS. Today, B&N has a solid selection of the genre, but Borders was the first.
I vaguely remember going into a Borders in Newport News, VA (inside of Patrick Henry Mall) when I was little. I remember it looking so modern inside. A lot of people in the area were so shocked when they closed their doors in April 2011. The store literally opened in Nov 2005. Only opened for about 6 years. Now, a Forever 21 sits in its place.
I went to Borders all the time during summer break. I'd hang out there all day because my mom didn't want us kids to use the air conditioner at home too much. I went there all the time until the location closed in late 2009 early 2010 if my memory was correct. I think one part of their downfall was people like me who listened to music and read books without ever buying anything.
I LOVED Borders and frequently visited and bought books, magazines, CDs and DVDs from my local shopping centre location. You were right.... their selection was amazing, (especially for Australia where product selection was usually limited elsewhere at that time.) I especially loved perusing all the overseas magazines and the hefty art and photography books. I would also always meet my partner there at the end of us both running our separate errands... it was perfect as if one of us were late, the other could amuse themselves with browsing or reading, (or in my case, buying!) I was so sad to see it go and still miss it to this day.
I LOVED Borders! Miss them so much. It was a safe place for Mommy & Me nights with my kids when they were growing up. We'd have dinner at Noodles & Co, then go over to Borders & hang out in the kids section until closing. They opened late for a while. When they started cutting hours, we hit up Barnes & Nobles more but still went to Borders often. We were with them until the end :(
My highschool girlfriend and I practically lived at Borders in the early 2000s. There was something about coffee and books and music that seemed so sophisticated for us young teenagers. I feel bad teens now don’t have a safe enriching place like that to hang out anymore; even Barnes and Noble feels like a toy store now in its struggle to survive.
There's the public library...
@@BreadFred3 That's mainly where homeless people go to read the newspaper.
@@AdmiralBonetoPick Unfortunately.
Same. A couple years before you, but same experience.
@@BreadFred3 it doesn’t have the same vibe at all. I totally agree with OP, going there and hanging out, reading books, getting coffee, etc, it was just fun.
Son of a former Borders finance guy at the headquarters, worked from 1997 to its closing in various departments. I shared this video with him and he loved it, and said it was extremely accurate. He wanted to add a couple possible reasons for the downfall as well
-Borders was always playing for 2nd place. They had the 2nd best locations, the 2nd best coffee shops in the stores, the 2nd best e-readers, things like that. Barnes & Noble survived because they were in the lead on most of those fronts, and when there’s no room for two competing book store chains, the lowest on the totem pole has to fall
-Walden books had 1300 locations, mostly tied to malls. As malls started to decline, they couldn’t pull out of those leases and find someone to fill it, and they were losing money. Even though B&N had a similar company with similar locations, they only had 700 so the impact was less
-Borders took a risk expanding internationally. They opened locations in the UK and one in Singapore, both of which were costly investments that didn’t pay off
-This one is a bit more speculative, but most book publishers are based in New York, and so is B&N. Few publishers would rather fly out to Ann Arbor than take a taxi in NY for a business meeting over dinner
I laughed a lot when he told me he received his biggest ever bonus because Borders only lost $19 million that year
Wow. Only 19 million!
I love it when somebody with insider information replies. Thanks for taking the time!
I'll also point out that Barnes and Noble cornered the college textbook crowd. You still see one of their stores near every university
I could see this. Very insightful!
I’d like to add that there is like 5 Borders locations in Dubai which is so random.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED BORDERS, and still mourn their loss. I could spend hours in Borders, and Barnes & Noble just never managed to hit the exact right notes that Borders did without effort. They missed the boat on e-readers, then came out with a lesser model, and it was too little/too late. When I pass by a couple of those former Borders locations, my heart hurts. I wasn't just a Borders customer; I was a Borders fanatic. The only reason I quit going is when they locked the doors. I'd go back tomorrow if I had the chance.
Me too!!! I wish Borders had survived instead of Barnes & Noble
Same here! The only chain store loss I truly mourn. Our store had various weekly events going. It did have the cafe but I was more there for books, music, and some of the weekly events.
Not surprised to see K-Mart touched it and it went under
@@MangoTroubles-007 No kidding. They took down Sears after over 130 years, too.
@@MangoTroubles-007 K-Mart buying you was a curse.. smh
I worked at Borders as a weekend job from September 1998 until June 2000. I remember the interview process was pretty detailed with questions about books and music and I apparently did okay because I was offered the job the next week. I worked in the music department (which also included the video section). I really liked the job for the most part and yes we prided ourselves on being able to help customers find exactly what they were looking for or being able to order it and have it at the store within 3 business days. I also learned so much about music and artists that it was crazy. I was already a music fan and thought I was pretty knowledgeable, but after working at Borders I broadened my musical horizons and found that I really liked a lot of different music that I either had never heard of or had a preconceived notion that I would not enjoy. My favorite moment of customer service happened when a high school girl came to the music counter and said that she needed some French music for a project for her French class where they would present a song and talk about the lyrics and translate them to English. She said that everyone was doing Celine Dion songs and she wondered if there was anything else in French that would be different. Fortunately for her, I had just discovered a new French duo called Les Nubians, which was a cool, slightly jazzy, R&B style music and they were French. Long story short, she got something completely cool and different from the rest of her classmates and I was able to totally wow her and her family with how quickly I was able to get it in their hands. I think that once that kind of customer service started to disappear, it was the beginning of the end for Borders!
I love everything about your comment! The part about getting that awesome sounding French duo to that girl was my fav part. How rewarding that must of been. 😊
I am the type of person who likes to find things myself, and it was nearly impossible at Borders. The customer service could be amazing, but to me it's worthless unless the shelves are kept organized and there's a system whereby someone can just find something. It looked nice, and it was a nice atmosphere and a place to hang out, but That whole marketplace model was a disaster. my experience was mainly at the 3rd Street promenade store in Santa Monica.
I wish I had gotten a job at Borders back then. That would’ve been Awesome.
Dream job!
That was the it job. My cousin worked for them forever. He loved it. I was sixteen when I applied. I’m a huge book person. And I failed
By two questions on the test. But you had to be educated to work there 😊
I used to shop at Borders in highschool specifically because they sold manga. No other bookstore around me at the time did this. Then around 2006, I discovered Kinokuniya, a Japanese chain that sold manga that cost 40-50% of the price Borders were charging. From that moment on, I never had a reason to enter a Borders again.
me too!!😅
SAME always went for the Mangas specifically DBZ and Street fighterz back when I was 8-9
Same!
@jasonrios3120 dude your making me feel old here. I was 12 reading that stuff and still reading it!
Booo
As a Borders employee at multiple locations from 2002-2006, and again from 2009-2011, I can say this is mostly spot-on. From what I could see the music and movie section actually did pretty well though. The big thing I saw was each new CEO wanting to put their own stamp on the company without a proper direction, focusing less and less on books and more on random stuff like body products, toys, and greeting cards/wrapping paper. In the beginning it was a great place to work, but by the end it was miserable. I quit exactly one month before its demise, with both middle fingers in the air.
You left a-la Stone Cold Steve Austin w/ the 2 middle fingers!😂
I noticed that too
I have been noticing that lately with a lot of these specialty stores that are still around: they sell more and more of this random crap. As an example, walk into an FYE that's still around and you'll see a lot of knick-knacks, T-shirts, Funko Pops, and other assorted retail trash, with barely any floor space for music, movies, or the other stuff they used to sell.
@@AskDrannik Thank the gods Borders died before Funko Pops existed.
@@carriertoneI still can't believe people pay so much money for those on eBay. I see those damn things littering thrift stores all the time. Total plastic trash.
I worked at Borders from 1996-2003, eventually becoming a manager and trainer. All your reasons are spot on. We had a hiring freeze and my store ran on a skeleton crew. 30k square foot store with only 4 employees there at a time. Customer service and morale went down the tube.
Yes, the same thing happened at my store in New Orleans. It's looks like they all were following the same type of decline more or less at the same time.
My Mother loved her Borders and the staff. They were always so friendly to her. When they were closing, she went there the last day to be the last customer and say good bye. I know she still misses them.
Nothing like romanticizing simping for a corporation
@@jlogg8738 Don't be a jerk.
I CRIED when Borders died 😭 Borders was my happy place, my safe place, my refuge when life went wrong. Borders was my PUB. There were SO many days I wandered the stacks, trying not to cry as I drank my chai latte and tried to pull myself together. I MISS Borders!!!!!! 🥺😔
I feel the Same way about some places that are Long gone now
Same here. It was the place my friends and I hung out for hours. It was the coveted job in high school to get
@@katiempojer Tower Records was always a place my friends and I loved to lurk around for hours.
Nostalgia feels good and hurts at the same time.
I never drank their coffee, but I used to buy art books, Metal magazines and anime on VHS and DVD at Borders. Just walking into the store was like going into another dimension of Great Learning. 😭
My family worked for Borders back in the day for decades, and you are absolutely correct about the cutting corners with part-time employees. But on top of that, they also let numerous higher salaried people (who had been with them from the beginning) go in lieu of new hires with whom they didn’t have to pay so much. My mother worked there for over 25 years and she was let go and replaced with someone who was brand new. They didn’t even pay that new person 1/3 of what my mother made. Corners CUT.
That's sadly been a common trend in many businesses.
Yep, all too common. This it gets harder and harder to make a decent living.
One of the largest and most respected engineering companies informed their people with decades of experience that they were going to be let go after they trained their own replacements. That included teaching some English. Engineers with a record of success have no trouble finding employment. Some gave two weeks notice. Some quit on the spot. I hired as many as I could. They brought their clients with them. I attribute my success to their corporate greed.
When did she get replaced? I can almost guarantee it was after they sold it to Kmart.
@@Iqaverage perfectly correct
I can't believe it has already been 12 years since Borders shut down. I'm just like you - every time I drive by my old Borders, I say "that used to be Borders." I remember when I was a kid, I always thought that was my dad's favorite store. It seemed like whenever he had free time, he would go buy a new book. I also remember when I was really little, they would have story time for kids. This is going to sound weird, but I almost felt a loyalty to Borders - so much so that when they closed, I was hesitant to go to a Barnes and Noble when I needed a book. I can still remember the smell of coffee wofting through the air, the rolling ladders attached the massive shelves; our Borders was 2 stories with the cafe on the top floor, and sometimes if we were lucky (though it was very rare) my dad would buy us a hot chocolate from there. I do kind of miss it, though I don't really read a lot anymore.
Damn bro I feel this. My story and store is the same.
my borders is BAM now
@@mattdouplesx ditto. I bet there are many similar stories. My wife and I spent many hours there studying, sipping coffee while in college in Ann Arbor. We felt like we lost a piece of our personal history. Never felt that way about any other doomed business.
Mine was replaced with some fitness centre up top and a beauty store at the bottom. I kinda crave those big box book stores because Kinokuniya was the closest for me because of the dedicated Anime-Manga section (I was planning to get Suisei’s Stellar to the Galaxy but I couldn’t.) I’ll also mention Barnes and Noble too, but it’s far :(
1 Orlando Florida area location turned into a cheap arcade, game place for low income people. Like a knock off Chuck E Cheese or toy store.
Company man, I've been in the hospital marathoning your videos, thank you so much for your series, its helped keep me sane
Get that hospital money
you should be thanking me
You write this comment on every video fishing for him to respond
I hope you feel better asap Joey ♥
Get well soon
As a compulsive reader, I used to invade Waldenbooks every month; everybody working there became friends to me. They knew the books I wanted, so they would pull out a stack and I would leave with a FULL bag. Their discount cards helped a lot with that :)
I miss Waldenbooks. sigh
how much reddit karma do you have
For me a trip to the local mall was synonymous with a trip to Waldenbooks to see what new books or types of books I was looking for were available.
We were poor so I wouldn't get to go to the mall in the area often (it was like 40 minutes away) but when I did get to go, I would make a B Line for Waldenbooks and just be so happy to get to read some Manga.
@@sawyerstudio The Waldenbooks that opened nearest to me made the news for being the first book store on the south side of San Antonio. I loved that place, and it was a shame when it was closed, leaving that void again. I know everything is digital now, but there was just something about it.
Borders was my little piece of heaven on earth. I was going through a very stressful time and Borders helped. One day I went there, found a new paperback by an author I liked,got a fancy coffee and a cookie and just relaxed. I could feel the stress just drain out of me. I really needed that. Plus great music selection.🥰☕️🍪❤️
Borders was the best book store out there, Barnes and Nobles just isn't the same thing. It wasn't the selection of books...it was the atmosphere. I'll never forget the memories I formed with my dad going to Borders. You would walk in and feel like you were in a cozy home, with Jazz music playing in the background and a 'cozy' atmosphere. I remember going to the expresso bar with my dad and there would be lots of people sitting at the tables reading books. I also remember there being many places to sit around the bookstore, and people would spend literal hours inside the store reading and even discussing books or music with other people; reading on some forums, apparently, lots of people made life long friends at Borders store because of this. Borders wasn't just a store...it was more of a Libary-Store hybrid. You never felt like you were in a store, you felt like you were in a library or a cozy home. To this day, I miss this store so much, maybe because I spent many years as a child there with my dad, but Barnes and Nobles just doesn't have that same feeling. Nothing against Barnes, it's a great store as well, however, that's the problem for me, you feel like you're in a store... :( wish somehow Borders could be brought back from the grave but that will never happen, even more so with the digital age. Even Barnes and Nobles is struggling because of Amazon, as people become lazier and dont want to go to a book store anymore, and instead order it online. I really hope there will still be book stores in the future, but it doesn't look good. Unironically, we will probably have small local bookstores survive in the future, reverting from big box to small lol.
I don't think it's laziness. Many of us no longer have any bookstores to go to. I live in a rural area. The last bookstore that was within 40 miles of me closed a couple years ago. There aren't even any used bookstores in my area. Online and the library are my only choices
The borders in my city was 2-stories, you could literally grab a book, go upstairs and read with it being as quiet as a library
After viewing this video, I was trying to find the words to describe what made me love Borders so much. What made it better than B&N or Crown or Waldenbooks? Your word “cozy” is the answer! For a bibliophile like myself, bookstores had the same allure that shoe stores have for many women. But I never felt comfortable browsing for too long because there was unspoken pressure to buy; and browsing without buying made me feel guilty, as though I was stealing. But here was a store that actually invited you to browse, or better yet, allowed you to read without harassment. They knew that, even if no books were purchased that day, the customer might buy magazines or coffee or just return two more times that week and buy several books. I was shocked and saddened to see it close its doors!
@@netplayer23 I feel the same as you. Borders was a pleasant, cozy place to browse for books. There were always chairs to sit in while I looked at books I usually decided to buy. It was the Borders atmosphere that was so special. I miss it terribly. Barnes and Noble is just a big, impersonal store with no places to sit and read a book. Standing at their bookcases is just not the same. I hardly ever go to Barnes and Noble anymore, it's just not a pleasant experience. Buying books on Amazon is convenient, but I really miss Borders!
So...So...So true. I miss Borders too. 😞
There was a Borders store 2 miles from my house, I spent alot of time there. I cried when it got closed.
Yup, mine was about a 5 minute drive from my home. And there were a lot of stores and great places to eat in the shopping center where it was located, so it was always a store on my to go list when ever I'd go out there.
Before cell phones, if my siblings were out of the house and I wanted to find them, I'd first check the Borders. Good memories.
So did I. I spent so much free time there... A special place for a lot of people...
@@TinyCryptoBlog Hope you bought something from time to time instead of sponging off them.
My dad actually used to work as an internal auditor at Borders when I was in like 4th grade. We moved to an apartment in Ann Arbor for a bit thinking we would full on move there as he worked with them, but he ended up leaving and we moved again before I started 5th grade. I never thought much about it as a kid since I didn't even know what internal audit was, but I'm 21 now and I think it would be interesting to ask him for the inside scoop on what was going down.
You’re father is a true company man
@stefanjasper
If you get the chance please speak to your Dad and ask him some details about what led up to him leaving the Borders job and post a follow up here. Thanks.
We need an update! What's the tea?!
@@watershed44 Will do! Haven't had a chance to see him since I've been busy
@@stefanjasper Thanks for doing that!
Many folks posting here are wondering the same thing.
I worked at Borders as manager in the early 90s. Each store would have 3 times as many titles as the average Barnes & Noble but there were so many items we couldn't sell. We had an entire section of Shakespeare plays in French and German and Italian. It was almost every play and took 2 full shelves. We could tell from the inventory stickers that these books were sitting for 3 years. The amount of books we had in storage was criminal. We could move bestsellers at 30% off but full priced weird specialty books just sad. The carrying costs for Borders must have been massive
Yeah, that's definitely the downside to such a massive inventory. Honestly had Borders gotten their website in good shape they could have kept the most popular titles in stores with just a bit of flexibility for the niche books people liked seeing, then offloaded the rest to storage warehouses to be shipped out from online.
As I suspected they were fudging the figures. 2007 was convenient for businesses to fail.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
Wow we didn't keep things that long if they didn't sell at Barnes and Noble. Unsold books are returnable to publishers, which is a weird quirk of the book industry. It sounds like they didn't utilize that well in order to have "wider selection." But Amazon had a wider selection the day they opened than any physical bookstore could have had ever and they can keep their books in a warehouse somewhere (probably not even paid for by Amazon itself).
I worked at Borders for about 4 years while in college and I loved it. I remember having to sign people up for the Borders Rewards Card and also when the cafes switched to Seattle’s Best. Harry Potter Midnight Releases were my store’s busiest times. I left in 2007 and every time I pass by the old building which is now a TJ Maxx, I always say that used to be the Borders I worked at!
"They sold their entire business to K-Mart..." I think I know what went wrong. 😂
Seriously though, for them to have been big in the Midwest, I don't think I had ever even seen a Borders. We had plenty of Barnes and Noble & Books-A-Million, though. Great video! I LOVED going to the bookstore! 📖
Said the same thing in my comment. Once you know the geniuses behind K-Mart's torpedo in the ground touched something, you can bet it didn't end well. I'd be shocked if some K-Mart execs didn't get cushy positions with Borders and were behind a lot of the incompetence.
I worked at a Borders in the early 00's expansion was an issue for a year at every meeting before shift they'd announce one or two new stores openings.
Then a year later when profits were down they just cut cost accross the board vs focusing on the stores that worked. Which brought all the stores down.
Also they were horrible at advertising themselves.
When i was in Army combat medic training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in 2002, I spent almost every evening and day off at Borders just hanging out. It had such a chill atmosphere and it felt so nice after being yelled at and training hard day in and day out. I didnt have a car at the time so it was like the only decent store within walking distance. I bought tons of CDs and a good amount of books from them and also did most of my studying there as well. Good times.
I was shocked when Borders started going out of business. In my middle school/high school years, Borders was the place to go for a vast selection of fantasy and sci-fi stuff (as opposed to stocking dozens of copies of a single popular title).
The closest Borders to me got turned into a Books A Million right after going out of business. The BAM who moved in didn't even change the interior at all, they just changed the sign outside. 😂 They did do a little bit of remodeling a few years later, but it was mostly superfical stuff, like changing the carpet and rearranging the bookshelves. But the store is still basically identical to how it was back in the early 2000's. It was my dream as a kid to work at Borders while in college. RIP.
Mine did the exact same thing. They also changed the coffee shop from Seattle's Best to Joe Muggs. From what I recall back when it happened, BAM did this to a very small percentage of Borders stores when they closed (think it was only maybe around a dozen or two). They most likely picked these locations based on the location of the nearest main bookstore, and as my nearest Barnes and Noble is almost half an hour away they had and continue to have almost no competition, being the go-to bookstore in my town.
Yep! Just checked, and Books A Million is still there, over ten years later! Tells you that the issues weren't e-readers or CDs.
Been waiting for this one! I worked there in 2007-2010 and the decline was obvious from the inside. I was part-time and making min wage with my only raise being when the min wage increased in my state. The management started pushing "customer service" aka badgering the customers who just wanted to browse in order to get them to buy more. I think we lost a lot of regulars that way. They became way more interested in upselling toys and little nick nacks rather than books. It was a nice place to work when I was in college but definitely wouldn't have stayed any longer.
Former employee here, Same years you worked. YES! Exactly this. Forced marketing to non-interested customers.
We never, and still don't, have Barnes and Nobels so it really hurt when our Borders shut down. Amazon is fine if you know what you want but I found so much cool stuff at Borders just by browsing. Plus they had a fun open mic night with lots of cool local artists. Great store. I miss it
@ingobernoble2678, I have a Barnes and Nobles and have been there only once as a little kid in 97or 98. I remember tons of books and a cafe. I had a gift card from winning a guess how many candy in a jar and won the gift card in 1st grade. I haven't been back since.
@@shainahullihen1159 Barnes and Nobles is okay, especially if you're looking for newer books or something in a "new" condition that can be lacking at a used bookstore. However, it's a little pricey and every store seems to be set up differently which can make it a little challenging finding where you're looking for if you aren't use to that store.
@@SimuLord if amazon knew when you've found a new gf to recommend some "new" stuff, that'd be scary
The weird thing is, I found that the borders around where I grew up around got replaced by books a million
I knew several of the salesmen who were allowed to run their own departments. One guy was allowed to select great science fiction and horror. The other was well trained music expert. It was great to stop and shop by and listen to music. Also Calendars selling calendars
As a kid who would go to Borders every day after school to read and buy manga, I was so sad. I remember the employees told me the late engagement in ebooks was the demise.
This one hurt. I loved Borders and when it went out of business, I was really sad. They were my gateway into manga because they were one of the few places that actually had a dedicated section for anime and manga merch.
Worked as an associate>manager at Borders for nigh 11 years. It’s nice to see people remember it fondly. Moving on to other companies, it became clear how profit-challenging the book business was and how many regrettable decisions they made. Still, it was a lot of fun and the closest staff I ever had.
I worked at a location. We made nothing on newly published books. If you look deeper into that topic you will find that both Borders and B&N got into trouble for under cutting each other to the point where the publishers forced them to sell at a higher price.
There were also no profits to be had on older books since the shelf time ate away at the profits.
Our only profit came from the stacks of discount coffee table books which were always stacked up near the register for shoppers to impulse buy while waiting to check out.
So, if you build a brick and mortar operation where 95% of your floor space is not bringing in profits, then your doomed to fail.
The business model for Borders 📚 was odd 🤨. By 2010 fewer people were buying hard back books, novels.
I mean man wrote brick and motor instead of mortar
@Mck Idyl It's common knowledge that typos are impossible on the Internet...
@@FutureNaught sooo tree 🌳
I was a Borders customer until their last store near me closed in early 2012. It took them that long to sell out of everything. i walked out with a lot of manga, because they were genuinely good at keeping up with things in that regard, and they had a very large selection--bigger than any other chain bookstore.
I remember seeing this as the rival bookstore to B & N it’s a shame what happens
Nowadays, Books-a-Million (BAM!) is B&N's closest rival.
W pfp
Now you are abroad in Türkiye 😁
@@ckfinke7625 , Barnes & Noble is still much larger. BAM! isn't even in my state or dozens of other states. My metro area has 11 Barnes & Nobles but no BAM!s to be found.
@@caseyadams1861 Well Books-a-Million became the second-largest bookseller after Borders went out of business.
I was loyal customer at Borders all the way up till the end, my late father and I would go every Sunday after breakfast they would send us coupons via e-mail and we would always dig around the clearance section and our favorite genres and often leave with a least one book. I think the primary reason they went under was they got too focused on music and movies, nobody went there for that and even if you did every DVD or CD was highly overpriced when compared to Walmart or Best Buy. I never really understood it if you went to Borders you went because you loved books, and yet they devoted a quarter of the store to stuff that people were not there for.
I was a Borders employee for 4-5 years and was there until the very end. While I primarily worked in the cafe, often times helped the book floor when it was needed. I believe in late 2010 and 2011, while most store were closing, many talks of my store and a few others will not be affected with closing. Everything was fine and dandy until the day I came into the work and there were signs all over the windows saying we were closing.
During a lot of the company meetings near the liquidation dates of my store, it was mandatory to push those e-readers but as everyone knew, it was too late. Those training on those kobo readers were pretty bad and no one really knew how to use them. Barnes and Noble already had a huge market for them at their stores. I felt like this was one of the biggest reasons of their downfall as noted in the video.
What was also bad was, at the start of the liquidation, the day I found out we were going to close was that the cafe was shut down immediately. We had to pour several gallons of milk down the drain, all good food items had to be tossed. Nothing was donated or served while they lasted. Such a shame.
I had a great time working there and I had many great memories. Even kept contact with a lot of old coworkers. Just like in the video, every time I drive through my old store and the others in the area, I would often say, that was once a Borders, a great place full of memories.
Why didnt you call your parents and take all those. It was free good food
@@dranzerjetli5126 why would i need to call my parents? corporate and liquidators made us throw everything away
Somebody who never fully transition to online shopping and still despises the online shopping experience to this day I sincerely miss borders bookstore. I can’t think of a single bad shopping experience I ever had. It’s true their staff was pretty kick ass and knowledgeable in the subjects that they sold
I got better things to do than spend a couple of hours shopping in retail outlets across the city. I get that $#!t done in 20 minutes on my phone.
And I'm 53. I love online shopping if I don't need the item Right Now.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 spoken like a true boomer! Fuck the world as long as you get YOUR modern conveniences. Lmao
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 Online shopping is great if you're looking for a particular item or a specific thing, especially if your time is a bit more limited, but it's not as useful for "window shopping", getting ideas for someone, or if you're just looking to get out of the house for awhile. Online shopping is certainly generally more convenient but I do think there are very valid reasons why it's not always better than in-store shopping.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 it’s the shipping costs that gets you. Most retail stores have some sort of system online where you can check if a store has something in stock, so you aren’t stuck driving around all over the city. Some will even let you check out and pick up the item at your convenience, meaning many times, they’ll even bring it out to your car. That’s service!
I'm 68, and love Amazon. Their book recommendations rival (and possibly exceed) anything a person could suggest in person. Not only do I save time shopping online (allowing me to do things more important than shopping for a book), the shipping is free and is often overnight. "Bring it to your car" is nice, but doesn't even begin to compete with "bring it to your door."
I miss Borders so much. It was the only major book store my town had growing up, when they closed we only had the used bookstors left which was fine exept when you were looking for a new book and had to go to Wal-Mart or Amazon. It was really depressing not having a dedicated new book store anymore.
I miss borders also
I miss strong borders too. Now anyone can walk right through under biden.
@@coldestbeer the first conservative joke that doesn't involve gender, amazing
@cirrus "everyone who doesn't delude themselves is a conservative" american liberals are hilarious
@@coldestbeer Unlike American right-wingers. No wonder Joe Biden kicked the GOP's ass in 2020.
My sister went into the CD department of a local Borders and asked for "Big Band" music. The young customer service rep walked her over to where the symphonies were. "They're big bands, aren't they?"
Somehow that is really freaking hilarious
Weird. Your sister could have just gone to the CD section and all the genres of music were well-marked - I love a lot of diverse genres of music and was always able to find the section(s) I wanted without asking.
@@diannt9583 Well, maybe the person was blind. Your comment sounds like racism.
I worked there for 15 years. The failure to establish a website early on, apart from that wonky deal that gave all our online business to Amazon, was a major factor. 2008 may have been peak revenue, but the company was already well in decline by that point. The other major factor I would point to is turnover in corporate direction. They kept changing leadership and trying different things, and then immediately getting cold feet and backing out. It was like death by 1000 cuts. In 2011 I ended up a Borders refugee, but finally landed at another, smaller bookstore with a better store culture, which isn't to say that the store culture in Borders was bad, but it was a Big retailer, and that meant a lot of agreements between the company and publishers or distributors that had to be adhered to (for instance, how items were displayed). Shoplifting was an issue as well. We had a fairly aggressive approach to it, but ultimately you can only do so much, and if you don't know exactly what your limits are, you can end up in trouble. We had a pretty good inventory system, but not as advanced as a company like Walmart, and it definitely could have been improved, which, if done right, would have streamlined the customer experience with things like locating and ordering books. It was a good company, but it failed to adapt to the existence of the internet. Amazon basically used it as a springboard to success, while Borders went into decline.
Back in it's heyday, our Borders in Champaign, IL had employees who were linked to the live-local music scene, so the Borders cafe was a legit live local music venue (mostly acoustic acts, of course). They had a local music section in the store. It wasn't just this big box retail behemoth, it was really linked into our community.
I still have my Borders card, for nostalgic purposes! Great memories.
I have a borders bookmark with me that I see!
My local mall had a Waldenbooks and it was the only bookstore within over an hour of me. I bought every single one of the Twilight books there as a cringey preteen and it is one of the few positive memories I still have of those years, that hasn’t faded into the ether. I distinctly remember the feel of that store. When it closed, it took my town a good 5 years for an indie bookstore to crop up and it was rough, having to go in towards the nearest big city for over an hour to go to a bookstore.
One thing a borders employee told me was that the company would allow their employees to take books home, and encouraged reading. He led me to some increadibly unique biology books, and had a vast pool of bioligy related sci-fi knowledge to call from. I shopped there until their final day because all of their employees were like that, and I miss it.
The funny thing is anybody can take any book they want home for free from the library lol.
@@jeffc1347 Not the brand-new book that was just on Oprah.
I worked for Borders part-time in around 2008-2009. I was in college at the time and it was my first real job. As personal sellers we were instructed to sell every customer on one of 4 or 5 "books of the month". I think the idea was that they would purchase more of certain new titles in bulk to save on costs and then rely on the employees to push those books. So of course the attractive women who worked there always had 5-10 more books sold per month than anyone else, and this was what they judged our performance on. I said then that the business model was unsustainable and I was proven right. If they had taken the online space more seriously and not been trapped in long-term leases they might have been able to downsize and survive.
I also worked for Borders at a Waldenbooks store. They also had a really bad habit of ignoring popular genres like Manga and African American Fiction. we used to have to fight to get those titles in when our customers were clamoring for them. They instead were intent on pushing "Tentpole Titles" like Harry Potter and such. Noone at our location bought that stuff but they insisted on all stores carrying the exact same stuff. We only kept our store open as long as we did because our manager ignored corporate and they couldn't fire him for it since our store was one of the only profitable ones.
I worked at Chapters, the Canadian Borders, and towards the end of my time there they wanted us to walk around with a book and try to sell it to every customer. So dumb.
I had had a lot of experience working at independent bookstores when I interviewed at Waldenbooks. The manager told me that if a customer walked into the store and we didn't have what they wanted, my job would be to sell them something we had in stock. I didn't get the job. In retrospect, I'm glad.
No one ever tried to sell me on books I would not want. Then again, however, I was my own best saleswoman. And I also did go both for the very obscure books that fascinated me, as well as the 2 for 1 books near the checkout, should the topic or author interest me. Even at the end. And I didn't see them pushing other customers.
Might have been location-dependent.
I MISS that place.
@@jeffparker1617 WHAT?! Imagine people get paid a lot of money for those ideas.
I gasped with joy when seeing you uploaded this!!! Growing up I LOVED Borders. We had a local one that was two stories, a nice coffee shop, and Borders always had the BEST stationary section! I remember even getting my backpack once there as a young teen, with matching school supplies of course. And when he could afford it my dad would always buy us a Lindt truffle each to enjoy on the way home. To this day, every time I have to go to a Barnes & Noble I give a sad sigh, thinking about how much cooler it would be to go to Borders. B&N stationary is so much more generic and boring and overpriced.😭💔 RIP Borders. You made my childhood. I was so sad when they closed and I was definitely surprised.
Borders was such a better bookstore than B&N. The atmosphere was amazing and their selection was such a cut above anything B&N wishes they had. I could always find what I was looking for at Borders, and even stuff I never knew I wanted. B&N just isn't the same at all. I was super upset when my local Borders closed, and the Waldenbooks at the mall too.
So crazy how when a store goes out of business so many people forget about it
I ain’t forget. I’ll be telling my grandkippies about that time I took a shit at borders on robutussin
Never forget. Borders forever. Not just the kind on a map neither.
I miss the Borders at the Domain in Austin TX. It became a Microsoft store after birders closed. It was a great place to relax and read.
I never knew about this store
@@BobGeanis it was the bomb back in the day. You could go and get a bunch look at some books look at some magazines and drink coffee.
I know of a former Borders location. When they closed down they left some huge letters spelling BORDERS on the back wall. The location was turned into a furniture store, and the new owners took down half the letters and rearranged the others to spell BEDS in the Border's logo font. It was still there the last time I went by that area, an echo of the store's former life.
In the 90's in Alaska, Borders was one of the best CD stores in town. Their selection was HUGE, and not what you'd automatically expect from a bookstore. I stocked up on punk, metal, new wave, visual kei, TONS of different stuff.
8:04 - Also, that b-roll of people using e-readers is infuriating. It's like watching my parents try to use an iPad.
hahaha I was thinking the same seeing them struggle with the e-readers
@@FlameG102 The worst part was it didn't even look like they realized they were struggling. It was like they were just aimlessly swiping a blank screen and they added the effect of the display later.
It's because it's a stock footage of a green screen device. And the ebook was imposed on it
I still remember seeing borders in alaska. Sad that they closed so long ago. Barnes and nobles is still standing there
I remember the huge firepit near the center of the store in Fairbanks.
I have SO many fond memories of going to Borders back in mid-90's to early 2000's. My mom was a total book worm so we were always going to some bookstore. I do remember the employees at Borders (usually young guys) being very personable and genuinely passionate about what they carried. When Borders closed down, I later shopped at B&N but their employees were usually just awkward, quiet middle aged women that acted like you were bothering them and had no idea what you were talking about.
The music section in Borders was fantastic. I was always in that area. I loved their computer system where you could search for music yourself and see if they carried it or find other albums from artists you liked. If they didn't have it, I think they could order it for you, which was such a big deal at the time.
I worked at Waldenbooks/Borders Express from 1998-2008. You hit all the important points as far as I can see.
No online presence, and shifting from decently paid full time staff to minimum wage part timers. The salaried managers were expected to work 50-60 hours per week (all unpaid overtime) to make up the difference. I got a lot of pressure put on me to take a salaried position, at a whopping 4% raise! Thanks anyway.
There was tremendous pressure to upsell every customer and it became clear that the company would rather have employees who could push Lindor balls over ones who could help with book recommendations.
i used to work at Borders, too. my experience was very similar. i remember fearing for my job if i didn't try and upsell a Lindor ball at the register or fail to say the right phrases on the phone while working at the Info desk. nobody at my store ever wanted to help out at the cafe (especially our GM), and we were all expected to work odd hours for next to nothing. the company treated employees poorly. can't say i'm sad to see them gone.
Like how Gamestop cares more about employees pushing cards and programs than actually recommending good games.
At the time I started, it was a good job as far as retail goes. Because I was full time and grandfathered in, I had good medical and dental coverage, I got up to 4 weeks of vacation by the time I left, stock options, 401(k) with a 50% match, and starting pay even for part-timers was 50% above minimum wage.
Amazon was the first nail in the coffin. Obviously, B&N survived, and the video does a good job of explaining why. But it was Amazon that applied the pressure and when profits fell, management panicked. They were locked into leases and books cost what books cost. Heavy discounts on bestsellers could drive traffic, but that won’t pay the rent, or salaries and benefits.
You can really only save money by cutting payroll and benefits, so you lose quality employees. You increase profits by pushing high-margin items, like Burt’s Bees and
Lindor balls. Of course it didn’t work, but they were trying to stay afloat. They made some bad decisions, but I understand why it happened. It’s a shame, is all.
I loved Borders. Their clearance section was THE BEST! I always found something I'd never thought to look for. I still have a few Borders bags, and a few of the books I'd gotten there still have the receipts to use as bookmarks. (My to be read pile is HUGE.) When they closed, we purchased some of the bookcases, so my library looks a little like an old Borders store.
This was my favorite store growing up. The day my mom told me it was going out of business is a core memory. I was distraught. I loved the books, but an equally big draw for me were the space carpets in the children’s section. I had a solar system kit from there that hung on my ceiling all through my childhood. Barnes & Noble took over our location and kept the carpet, but it was never the same… 😞
The Borders I used to go to the most is now Barnes and Nobles as well and it's been a minute since i've been in that one....
Wasn't boarders the place that has the TV on a screen on the floor with the seating ghat looked like train?
I worked for Borders from 2008 to 2011 just before they went away. Way too many part timers would be hired or brought back during seasonal or they needed a job for winter/summer break. There were way too many managers, I alone had to answer to 5 people and I was just an inventory specialist/cashier. Also, the environment changed with way too many regular customers coming in daily to read magazines or newspapers without paying. If we didn't have a book or piece of media someone was looking for, we had to use or own website to buy it online. If the customer didn't have a debit/credit card, we had to get them to buy a gift card for the amount the book cost.
Spot on. I used to work for Borders in 2008 and the amount of unpurchased books and magazines at the end of the night were ridiculous. People would sit in the cafe for hours reading like it was a library and ruined the books with coffee rings on the covers. They would put in orders for books and never pay to pick them up. I used to wonder how they were even making a profit but I guess by 2008 they really weren't.
Sigh. If I sat and read a part of a book I didn't buy - I didn't buy that one because I didn't enjoy it. But I don't think I EVER left there without a purchase or possibly three. And I never ruined a book - even today all the physical books I own look like they just came home from a physical bookstore - I don't break bindings or covers or put what I'm eating inside the pages. Sorry that so many others were inconsiderate.
I believe I even tried to return the book to where I'd pulled it from, if not purchased.
I really miss Borders. It was my favorite place to go as a kid and teen and the hang out spot for me. I loved going in on a Friday night and reading some fiction, some non fiction, some strategy guides, visiting the coffee shop, and buying a book sometimes. Their closing still hurts the most out of my store.
This is good video. I worked at Borders from 2003-2008 as an inventory supervisor. One thing not mentioned in the video that likely contributed to the decline was the introduction of the Borders Rewards program in early 2006. This program sent out almost weekly coupons by email and also gave 5% rewards credit for purchases. Members could also earn "personal shopping days" that would given them 10% off an entire purchase, and this discount stacked with coupons and rewards credit.
Previous to the rewards program, Borders had limited discounts to just best sellers and a small selection of other products. The typical Borders customer was happy to pay full price on everything else given the much better selection and customer service. The Borders Rewards coupons were usually good for 20-50% off one item. This shifted the mentality of the Borders customer at the store I worked at. It wasn't long before a lot of regular customers would only buy stuff when they had a coupon. One of the graphs in this video showed Borders in the red beginning in 2007, which was the year after they launched the rewards program.
Also an error. Borders' first eReader was the Sony Reader. They offered that for several years before switching to Kobo.
I remember that Rewards program. As a high school kid with little money who was collecting manga volumes at the time it was awesome to be able to save a few dollars every week for a new volume.
I was a cafe manager for Borders in 1997-1999. When Amazon debuted, we immediately knew Borders would not survive, particularly with their half-baked attempt at being online. Oh, and most of the staff was part-time, although their book knowledge was indeed fantastic.
I miss Borders. It was a bookstore that catered to everyone: kids, seniors, adults, vinyl dudes, and did it well.
I just remembered these stores existed... wild. Had no idea they were gone.
I was a Borders devotee back in the day. We went for the last Harry Potter book's release party and it was really fun. I definitely like libraries or book stores better for shopping for books, because you can just look around and read the synopsis of books you might want to buy, plus they just have such a wide variety. I really do miss Borders, but now I go to either Barnes and Noble or Books a Million if there isn't an independent bookstore nearby. The Borders location I went to was across a "stroad" from the Barnes and Noble.
My first exposure to book stores was visiting Borders, especially my favorite location of theirs in Lower Manhattan. The last time I went to that Borders was on September 7, 2001 and then a few days later it was completely destroyed.
I have two lasting memories with customer service at Borders: I asked a young woman where I would find “Alice in Wonderland”. She had an American accent so I’m assuming she was either American or grew up in America but she had apparently never heard of the book and thought I was asking her about “Alison Wonderland.”
Another time I had to special order a book titled “World of Faery” and when I came back to see if it had arrived I saw it waiting on the shelf behind the register. I let the employee know why I was there and tried to tell her the name of the book but she turned around before I could finish, looked at the shelf, then told me they didn’t have “World Affairs”.
I've never worked at Borders, but I've worked at several small, independent bookstores. One time a customer walked in and asked if we had the mankind book, as if I should know what that was. My initial thought was that she was looking for some sort of anthropology book. I started asking questions in order to figure out exactly what she wanted. Anthropology? Nope. It turns out "Mankind" was a professional wrestler, and he had published a book just a few days before. She looked at me dumbfounded for my never having heard of Mankind. I wanted to say to her, "I work in a bookstore. Do you really think I watch wrestling?"
Another time, a woman called on the phone, asking if we had the biography of Princess Diana--"You know--the one written before she died." "When did she die?" I asked. The response--a dumbfounded "You don't know?" Well no, I'm not a fan of the Royals, so I couldn't remember when it was. I checked the computer for available titles. There were about 300. I told the customer I'd have to know a little more to be able to narrow it down to the one she wanted. She just got disgusted and hung up on me.
Yet another time, a man came in looking for the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I quickly retrieved a copy off the shelf for him. He kept asking me, "Is this the one actually written by Ben Franklin?" I told him yes, it has to be--it says "autobiography" right on the cover. He kept grilling me as if he thought I had the wrong book. I pondered whether I should explain the difference between a biography and an autobiography to him, but I finally realized it wasn't worth the effort.
My son and I lived in Borders on Saturday afternoons. They had everything! So sad what happened. I was hoping they would get rescued and make a comeback but no. My son was 13 when Borders closed. When he saw the location we went to was closing he got pretty upset.
There's a Books A Million in my hometown where Borders used to be, and it just isn't the same. The selection isn't as good and the prices are all marked up. The only real upside to Borders closing was that it got me to start looking for independent booksellers, and I found some real gems in my area. I still miss Borders though.
How does Borders differs from Books A Million?
Same here with a books a million in the old borders location. But I feel the prices are about the same on books. The price that is written on the bake by the upc.
@@answerman9933 it seems like BAM has more pop culture / nerdy toy stuff than borders did, but that’s probably just a sign of the times. And they don’t have Seattles best like Borders did- they had their own branded cafe. The one near me just removed their cafe though.
@@ducky19991 Well, okay. But I do not g to a bookstore to get coffee.
I worked at Borders from 2005 to their closing date in 2011 and you completely nailed it. Terrible online management, kobo e-reader that was subpar, investing in cds/DVDs that no one bought, but when they made all non-management part-time, it was the beginning of the end.
Borders was my first post high school job where I worked during my first year at college, from May 2000 to May 2001. It was the one in Murray, Utah, across from the Fashion Place Mall. I adored the customers, and my coworkers, many of which were school teachers. I always closed and there were so many nights me and my coworkers would hangout in the parking lot and just bs for an hour or more. It was such a magical time. I miss Borders.
True story: I worked at a Borders Cafe in my late teens. It was a total free-for-all. Cafe managers could basically sell whatever they thought would make them money. My most vivid memory is the “fajitas” we sold from the bake case. Our “fajitas” were deli meat, American cheese slices, lettuce and mayo wrapped in a big flour tortilla. They would sit in that case, pre-made for days at a time. Yum. And yes, they were labeled as fajitas. For real. 😢
Those are fajitas but pronounced fuh-Jai-tuz
..That's just a wrap 😂 Bet it sold like hotcakes
@@LowellMorgan lol-exactly
@@Raebrained maybe we sold one or two a day. It was embarrassing.
I always preferred Borders and Waldenbooks as a kid. In college when I had very little money I would go in once every couple weeks with a 30-40% off coupon and get a single book to read at the nearby mall. In high school when I had a part time job and no bills a couple times a year I would go out to the big Borders and do those buy 3 or 4 get 1 free deals on manga and spend 150$ and go home with 2 massive bags of manga and a couple books with it. I probably still have my borders card. Miss it so much.
I was heartbroken when Borders went out of business and two thirds of our local bookstores simply disappeared. I love B&N, but I'll always miss Borders.😭
My first "real" job was being a bookseller at Borders in 2005 and 2006, and I can attest that I never took a literature test, and I was only 19 years old and working on my bachelor's degree. I also was technically part time because they didn't want to pay for benefits for me lol but I still worked almost 40 hours a week. Still, I have a lot of fond memories from that job, and when the store I worked at was closed and turned into an Old Navy, it made me a little sad. Thanks for this video! Super interesting, and a fun trip down memory lane
You wouldn't happen to be from Puerto Rico? The one I used to go to on the island suffered the same fate.
@@johndeska1 no, this Borders was in Pennsylvania. Funny that 2 Borders stores thousands of miles apart would be replaced by Old Navy 🤣
@@MrsNorry It's really funny now that you mention it. You can only do so much with a vacant spot, eh?
Borders was my first job, starting in 2000, and I wasn't asked to do a literature test either as far as I remember.
The magazine rack at Borders is what brought me in
I used to go out of my way to spend hours looking at
all the latest magazines.
My gosh how media has changed.
I was a Borders customer, they were my favorite big bookstore chain. I really miss them. Great video as usual.
I remember taking a picture of my local one shutting down. Can't believe it's already over 10 years now.
I remember shopping here and you are right I could always find something obscure here. I didn't realize that that was a part of their market plan. I do also remember shopping their liquidation sale and remember that Boarders had become something like what Barns and Noble is now. A place primarily for books but had a bunch of other stuff non book related. For example I bought my son a soft baby blanket there and my daughter a board game.
Definitely the best selection, especially for technical books. I never felt "dumbed-down to" or patronized in a Borders. Excellent magazine selection as well.
Brilliant work. You are an elite UA-camr! One of my favorites. I discovered borders when it was in its later days. The store I went to was visibly in trouble. I’m noticed a drop in inventory and knew their days were numbered.
I really miss Borders and bought a huge stack of cds and some books at their Ann Arbor store in 2011. I remember they really did stock odd items, like Dover editions to music scores which I bought and studied as a young pianist/bassoonist and the CD selection for classical was always better than B&N, they stocked the best new classical selections and had a huge selection of NAXOS labeled cds, many of which I still have today. And yes, there are 3 stores I pass and say "yes, that used to be a Borders".
I never visited a Borders store, there weren't any in my area, but my local mall always had a Waldenbooks, and it was my favorite place to visit as a kid/teen. Quiet and cozy, and I could just relax and read as I wished. I was heartbroken when they closed down, and the worst part was that it was immediately replaced by an Apple store, which could not be more different
I remember many happy weekends shopping for books at Waldenbookd.
We were Borders people. When my mother was working on her degree, her and I would go to borders, sit in the cafe and do homework together. Most of my paperbacks I still have today were bought at Borders. Barnes and Noble never had the same vibe that we liked. It always felt stuffy and pretentious.
I wish you had talked about their expansion internationally. We had Borders here in Australia for a few years - big, prominent stores in prime locations. But then they all closed. I used to shop there.
That part about Borders having “that book” is so true, I found a line of a new author’s book on a shelf that were all signed with a thank you and never found it again after it the locations near me died.
I vaguely remember it had a pink cover with a donkey guy hugging someone. It was about that guy turning into a donkey man. At least that’s what I recall from the first few chapters I read.
Big shame that it went under, I miss it dearly.
I was a regular Border's customer. However, beginning around 2003 I switched to Amazon as they had a bigger selection and fast mailing.
Absolutely loved Borders and still miss them dearly! Wouldn't be involved in anime retail right now without them, in fact. My local store had a healthy supply of small accessories on clearance that I thought would make for great prizes/giveaways for a convention I was guesting at, and I ended up buying out their entire stock. The promotion went over so well that it led me down the path of becoming an official accessories dealer. Still happy to be at it 13 years+ later!
As a kid, the main rumor going around was solely that borders was simply too snobby for the internet, this really puts it succinctly into perspective
Lovely memories of the Borders bookstores in Dearborn, MI and downtown Long Beach, CA.
Mom and I used to go to Border's AND Barnes & Noble EVERY weekend! We both used to find books that we liked and I found old tv shows from the 70's on DVD for the first time! I saw them on TV Land first and got hooked! Then whatever we couldn't find at Border's, we just went to Barnes & Noble with was literally just a block away! It was a fun bonding experience with my mom and I miss it! This was I think 2007-2010 somewhere in there.
I used to shop at Borders a lot!
Very nostalgic for going to Borders on family vacations in the states. Something about getting my manga and sitting down in those quiet stores as a kid when I was sunburnt from too much time on a beach was so relaxing.
The reason why I knew about Boarders closing was when Spongepuppets (A Plush SpongeBob series) did a video where Squidward was sad that Boarders was closing as it was one of the places he could escape from SpongeBob and Patrick, with him going to the closing Boarders to have one last look. It’s an interesting time capsule I highly recommend.
I used to work at borders from 2007 to 2010. I got to see everything youre talking about first hand.
The media section fully shutdown in 2009. And the location worked at was across the street from a mall that had a walden books in it... i always thought that was strange. Also the customer service did suffer later on. Your spot on!
Great vid
In the mid 1990's through to early 2000/2001, there was a Borders book shop near the Dadeland Metro Station in Miami. I loved this one book shop. It had book selections that you would never find anywhere else, or in any other book shop in the city. I spent an inordinate amount of time in this shop. I still have my set of books that are collectibles now, in my library. To this day, none of the books I had purchased there, are available anywhere online. This was a very popular book shop, until they shut down.
I absolutely loved Borders. It was such a great place to visit. I almost ALWAYS walked out having purchased something, mostly books. I was genuinely sad when they disappeared.
The Joe Muggs brand ☕️ at BAM was 🤮. I liked the Starbucks B&N cafes but they seemed over priced 🤑. When Targets started to add Starbucks cafes that was a sweeping change.
The amazing thing was how quickly Borders zoomed past other bookstore giants such as B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. Alas, it zoomed downward just as quickly.
I recall reading an interview with Larry Correia, who is an accomplished writer himself.
He stated that he had such a horrible time dealing with borders, that he would rather hang out at mom and Pop shops to sign his book then go to Barnes and Noble, as opposed to having a book signing at borders.
Larry stated that at one Borders location, a manager did not want him to sign any books, because “if you signed them, we can’t return them to the manufacture as new“
HAHAHAHAHA! That is rich! (and ignorant!)
I should clarify that I meant that the Borders manager not wanting the author to sign books is ignorant.
Cripes, this unlocked hidden memories of my small home town's Waldenbooks becoming Borders before eventually shutting down. Now we'd have a few second-hand bookstores, but we'd need to drive an hour one-way for modern books if not for the internet. I miss being able to just go to a bookstore for new releases...
I'm from Puerto Rico and I remember the Borders they had at Plaza Las Americas (a popular mall located in San Juan). I would go almost every Sunday there with my dad. He would go to find his books and I would always be looking for either comics or manga. The place was huge, and had a wide variety of titles. I remember they also had live music on occasions. Due to being at the mall, the place was always packed. Since we used to go on Sunday mornings, the store was quietter, and we sort of befriended an older gentlemen, from the States , that would go to get his copy of the New York Times. The staff there was friendly as well and one woman in particular always recognized us as were regulars of sorts.
Watching this video makes me think of the staff and the people I stumbled upon at the store and wonder what became of them after its closing. The store to me always had a unique vibe, which will never be matched by any other book chain.
I loved Borders, and was shocked to see them go (along with Waldenbooks, which I frequented a LOT back in the day). One offering they had before B&N did: Euro boardgames. They had an incredible selection at a time when such was uncommon outside a dedicated FLGS. Today, B&N has a solid selection of the genre, but Borders was the first.
I vaguely remember going into a Borders in Newport News, VA (inside of Patrick Henry Mall) when I was little. I remember it looking so modern inside. A lot of people in the area were so shocked when they closed their doors in April 2011. The store literally opened in Nov 2005. Only opened for about 6 years. Now, a Forever 21 sits in its place.
I went to Borders all the time during summer break. I'd hang out there all day because my mom didn't want us kids to use the air conditioner at home too much. I went there all the time until the location closed in late 2009 early 2010 if my memory was correct. I think one part of their downfall was people like me who listened to music and read books without ever buying anything.
I LOVED Borders and frequently visited and bought books, magazines, CDs and DVDs from my local shopping centre location. You were right.... their selection was amazing, (especially for Australia where product selection was usually limited elsewhere at that time.) I especially loved perusing all the overseas magazines and the hefty art and photography books. I would also always meet my partner there at the end of us both running our separate errands... it was perfect as if one of us were late, the other could amuse themselves with browsing or reading, (or in my case, buying!) I was so sad to see it go and still miss it to this day.
I LOVED Borders! Miss them so much. It was a safe place for Mommy & Me nights with my kids when they were growing up. We'd have dinner at Noodles & Co, then go over to Borders & hang out in the kids section until closing. They opened late for a while. When they started cutting hours, we hit up Barnes & Nobles more but still went to Borders often. We were with them until the end :(